Part 19 (1/2)

He parked the Land Rover outside the general store and then walked to Edie Aubrey's cottage. The front window was boarded up. In a more civilised part of the country, a glazier would have replaced the broken window by now, but in the Highlands it was very hard to get anything repaired quickly. Glaziers, plumbers, electricians, men who repaired dry stone walls and builders all seemed to suffer from bad backs. The work always eventually got done, but it took a long time.

He knocked on the door, and after a few moments Edie answered it. She was a scrawny woman with thick gla.s.ses and dressed in a track suit of a violent shade of red.

”Hamis.h.!.+” she said. ”What brings you?”

”Can I come in?”

”Yes, of course. I was just about to put the kettle on. Take a seat in the lounge.”

Hamish went into an uncomfortable, overdecorated room. Although not a Highlander, Edie had adopted the Highland way of keeping one room for 'best,' so it had that clean, glittering look and stuffy, unused smell. It was all in shades of pink. Barbara Cartland would have loved it. There was a pink threepiece suite upholstered in some nasty slippery material. Pink curtains hung at the boarded-up window, and the walls were painted in a shade Hamish recognised as being called blush pink. Pink scatter cus.h.i.+ons cascaded onto the floor as he sat down. The sofa was so overstuffed, he felt himself slipping forwards, so he retrieved the cus.h.i.+ons and then sat down on the one hard upright chair in the room.

Edie came in carrying a gla.s.s tray with thin cups on it, cups embellished with gold rims and pink roses.

”Could we have some light in here, Edie?” asked Hamish, peering at her through the gloom.

”Of course.” She switched on a pink-shaded, pink-fringed standard lamp.

”Now, Edie, what happened to your window?”

”The silliest thing,” said Edie with awful brightness. ”I was vacuuming the room and I slipped and the end of the vacuum went straight through the window.”

”So all this talk about someone throwing a brick through the window is lies? Come on, Edie, I'm not daft and I know what goes on in Drim. Someone was jealous of you getting a wee speaking part.”

Edie glared at him and then shrugged her thin shoulders. ”Oh, well, you know how we are here. Someone pushed money in an envelope through the letter box the other day for the repairs. We settle our own disputes.”

”You are a bunch of silly hens,” said Hamish. ”And what about this film the minister's wife is doing?”

”Oh, that was fun for a while,” said Edie, lying back against the sofa in a jaded, sophisticated way. ”But we can't be caught up in the wee woman's amateur dramatics every day of the week.”

”You're making a big mistake there,” said Hamish. ”Oh, me and my big mouth!”

Edie sat up straight. ”What do you know?”

Hamish smiled at her ruefully and then shrugged. ”Oh, well, then I'll tell ye, Edie, but it's to be a secret, chust between the two of us. Promise you won't breathe a word!”

”I promise. Would you like a dram?”

”No, it's too early and I'm driving.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. ”As part of this murder case, I haff been checking up on the backgrounds of everyone.”

”I heard you were off it,” said Edie.

”This was afore,” said Hamish huffily. ”Do you want to hear this or not?”

”Yes, yes, go on.”

Hamish took a slow sip of tea while Edie waited eagerly.

”In the background of the minister's wife...”

”I knew it! I knew it!” said Edie, her pale eyes s.h.i.+ning behind her gla.s.ses. ”Scandal!”

”No, nothing like that,” said Hamish sternly, ”and I won't be telling you, Edie, if you keep interrupting.”

”Go on.”

”That play of hers, when she was a la.s.sie, was performed at the university and got rave reviews. She was approached by a major film company. They wanted to buy the rights.”

”Oh, my. What did she do?”

”Her parents were Calvinists and against the movies. They made her turn it down. But I happen to know-if you tell any one this, I'll kill ye!”

”No, no. Go on. Have a biscuit.”

Hamish selected a foilwrapped Penguin chocolate biscuit and began to peel off the wrapping with maddening slowness. Then he took a bite and looked at Edie solemnly.

”I happen to know that Eileen Jessop is sending her film off tae Hollywood to some big producer. It's a deadly secret. She hasnae even told her husband.”

He smiled sweetly at Edie's astonished face. He finished his biscuit and drained his cup and stood up.

”But if you get any more attacks from the locals, Edie, you should tell me.”

”Oh, I will, Hamish. And I won't breathe a word.”

Hamish turned in the doorway. ”See that you don't.”

Edie's next visitor was Holly Andrews.

”We put Eileen Jessop in her place,” said Holly. ”It's a bit vain, don't you think, Edie, her wanting us to take time off from our homes to act in her wee bittie film when we could all be stars.”

”We're all thinking this television thing is going to be shown,” said Edie. ”But there's a jinx on it already. One of the camera crew said they were getting worried on BBC Scotland that it might be tasteless to show it at all in view of the deaths. I think we were all a bit hard on Eileen. Come to think of it, I think my part could do with more work. I'm going up to Eileen's to say I'll be available for more filming.”

Holly was jealous of Eileen's friends.h.i.+p with Ailsa. ”She puts on airs because she's the minister's wife, but I tell you this, Edie, if she shows that tosh she's filmed outside of Drim, we'll be a laughing stock.”

Edie leaned forward, her face intense in the gloom of her living room. ”If I tell you something, Holly, something about Eileen, will you promise not to breathe a word?”

”I'm a clam. You know me. I wouldn't say a word to a soul.”

Holly's eyes grew rounder and rounder as Edie repeated what she had heard from Hamish Macbeth.

”So you're not to say anything, mind!” cautioned Edie as Holly made her way out.

Colin Jessop had gone off to Inverness, and Eileen was alone that evening. She felt depressed and let down.

She walked to the manse window and looked down the drive. And then she saw the village women, done up in their best, walking up the drive, happy and chattering, headed by Edie Aubrey.

She went and opened the door. ”We've just been thinking,” said Edie excitedly, ”that it would do no harm to let you film a bit more.”

”If you really want to,” said Eileen, surprised.

There was a chorus of 'Yes, yes,' as they all crowded into the manse.